VANCOUVER -- British Columbia has changed its guidelines around who should get a COVID-19 test and when they should get it.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the changes to the provincial testing strategy at her briefing on the pandemic Thursday, saying that they are a result of health officials learning more about the coronavirus as well as the tests that detect it.
"We have recently updated our approach to testing to ensure that those people who most need to get a test right away realize that and do that," Henry said.
Under B.C.'s new testing guidelines, there are two groups of people who need to be tested immediately.
The first group is those who have been exposed to a known case of COVID-19 and have any symptoms at all.
The other group is people who have not been exposed to a known case of the disease but have any of the four symptoms most-commonly associated with COVID-19. Those symptoms are fever or chills, cough, loss of sense of smell or taste, and difficulty breathing.
"Even if you've not been around anybody with COVID, you need to get tested right away," Henry said of people with those symptoms.
Other symptoms, including sore throat, loss of appetite, fatigue, body aches, nausea and diarrhea, can be treated with a wait-and-see approach, the provincial health officer said.
"On their own, they don't necessarily mean you have the virus," she said.
If those symptoms persist or worsen after 24 hours, then testing is advised.
"What we want to do is focus where people know they need to get tested immediately," Henry said. "If you've not been around anybody that has COVID, we're updating the guidance to make it clearer for people. It's not that you can't get a test, but there are certain people that we want to get a test right away."
Anyone who is unsure if they should be tested for COVID-19 should contact their health-care provider or call 811.
